We had a great camping trip to Dowdy Lake this week. One night was plenty for us, but we had a lot of fun while we were there. The weather and the setting was perfect. The boys would have been happy to catch more fish, but oh well…
Short post, but here are a bunch of pictures from the last few months (yeah, it’s been that long since I wrote a real update). Enjoy!
I designed a monkey-head logo for Caleb’s scout patrol, the “Knot Monkeys”. The plan is to put it on an iron-on transfer to put it on the flag. Fun stuff.
This was my first bit of ‘art’ done using Inkscape, an open-source vector-graphics editor. Seems pretty capable, but I was only using a couple of tools (bezier curves and gradient fills). I expect to be doing a bunch more art in the future as I work on some mobile gaming for Android.
The original svg is here if you care… Inspiration from this great photo: 
We enjoyed listening to General Conference this weekend. It always seems so chaotic having the boys there in the room ‘listening’ while building legos, drawing, whatever else they are doing. But they continue to surprise me with how much they do pick up on. I’m grateful we have that opportunity, and I have to trust that that, along with the many other efforts large and small, will give them each a solid foundation in the gospel, and the desire to gain their own testimony and live accordingly.
Sunday was also Trent’s 9th birthday. Perfect timing to have some fun things to do during General Conference. Trent loves computer games and video games. He enjoys school and does well in all subjects. He loves to laugh — he’s always had the heartiest belly-laugh that is contagious. He’s great fun to have around.
Last Friday we also attended the re-scheduled Pinewood Derby for the Cub Scout Pack. Caleb has graduated from Cub Scouts, and only Trent made a car this year. Our cars are always middle-of-the-pack in speed, but the boys have a lot of fun designing and building them. Trent won one of the Best In Show awards this time around, so he was thrilled.
The Derby was rescheduled due to a late-spring snowstorm the previous week — the boys finally had a snow day.
We got more snow on Saturday, which means the first two weeks of soccer games have also been snowed out. Hopefully we get to play this coming Saturday. One last snowstorm is currently on the forecast for Sunday, though… Hope I get one more chance to get bundled up and shovel the driveway!
Just to illustrate how long it’s been since I posted a family update — here are pictures from Alec’s birthday party in January. We did a ’science lab’ party, culminating with Diet Coke & Mento rockets / fountains in the driveway. Fun for all 
Caleb’s birthday was also in January, but we just had his birthday party a few weeks ago — I took him and a couple friends to play paintball, so we had to wait for nice enough weather on a weekend that was open.
Weekends were not open through most of January and February, due to Caleb and Trent playing basketball. Kim was the coach for Trent’s team, and that was a fun experience for all involved.
Early in March, the older boys all played in a violin recital. I played duets with Caleb and Trent, but Alec wasn’t happy with the way I played Twinkle Variations with him, so I was banned…
For Spring Break, the plan was to mostly relax around home, but we ended up scheduling a trip to Copper Mountain for some skiing at the last minute. Last minute trips mean no relaxation whatsoever, but it was fun, we made lots of good memories. Trent was just getting comfortable on the skis when he took a little tumble. He was okay, but was just laying there, when another man came up to see how he was (turned out to be a doctor). Trent said the man told him not to move, so he didn’t, even though he was fine. He ended up getting a trip down the mountain in the ski patrol toboggan, while I waited at the botttom of the run wondering what had happened to him. He thought it was great fun.
I was finally released as Ward Clerk last week. It was a great experience to work with the bishopric and other leaders, and learn more of the administration of the Church. With all of us essentially untrained volunteers, it is indeed a miracle that work of the Church carries on despite our best efforts I was asked to serve next as a Scoutmaster for the 11-yr-old boys (which includes Caleb). I’m looking forward to that, if not so much to sitting in primary each week. It will be great to be with the boys each week, at least.
By and large, things are going well for us. Kim’s busy as always managing the family, planning and prepping the garden, and keeping us all fed (very well, I might add). We’re planning our summer projects, deciding on priorities. The big projects competing for time and other resources will be sprinklers, a bay window, a patio in the front and redoing the front stoop / entryway. Plenty to keep us all busy.
A bit more info on the story. And another story in which a student was called a “fascist bastard” by his teacher for a gay-marriage speech. I commend these people for speaking out and defending their beliefs. Many may disagree with those views, but we have to be able to have open discourse. Teachers should be the ones facilitating that.
This was the last week of school and work for us all… looking forward to the next two weeks off. We’re basically spending it at home.
Saturday we had our annual event of building/decorating graham cracker “houses”. We had the Carnley’s (Steve, Tiff, and Zach) over to share in the fun.
My creation this year was a giant spider / bug ridden by Santa. Inspired by giant pretzel sticks, and I even had to get out the hair dryer to pull this one off. It was fun to build, and I even impressed myself However, pride got the better of me, and it collapsed when I was moving it to get a better picture… Oh well.
This week, Caleb also was awared his Arrow of Light. He’s just about done with Cub Scouts, and really looking forward to going on campouts and all the other fun of Boy Scouts.
Merry Christmas to all!
We decided to take advantage of the great fall weather we’ve been enjoying, to take some family pictures. Not perfect, but good memories…
We got a simple little video camera back at Christmas, but I haven’t bothered to upload / post anything before now… I spent a few minutes to see what’s involved, so here goes — a couple today from Colin visiting for dinner:
A couple comments on the yard: we just had the old patio torn out and a new stamped-concrete patio poured. Next comes the deck where the old patio was, then hopefully a sprinkler system so we can finally grow grass consistently. It’s going to be a busy summer
Last month I had the privilege of baptizing my second son, Trent. To me, it is one of the greatest joys I have as a father, and a great confirmation to me of the truthfulness of the restored Gospel — that I can administer to my own family through the power and authority of the priesthood.
That thought was also expressed by Elder Enrique R. Falabella of the Seventy:
The Church of Jesus Christ is a church of priests, “a royal priesthood, an holy nation” (1 Peter 2:9).
The restored Church gives to each home a priesthood holder with the power of God to bless. How many times I have been able to hear the soft, sweet voice of a little child at home say, “Daddy, could you give me a blessing?” and put my hands upon his or her head in moments of pain and difficulty and pronounce blessings of comfort and healing and see the power of the priesthood exercise its influence and the next day hear that little voice say, “Thanks, Daddy, I slept just fine last night.” We don’t need to go out looking for someone having that power—it is among us! What a blessing to be able to teach this principle to our children! This is the only church upon the earth which offers such a blessing to families.
Kim wanted to have family pictures done for her birthday.
We’re not entirely thrilled with the pictures, but it will be a nice memory in the future. More pictures here:
The pictures here are scans of the originals, so the quality is not great.
Stop reading now unless you want to know about the experience…
We had them done at Portrait Innovations at the Centerra shopping center. I hate big shopping centers, and I hate the assembly-line, herding operations like the studio was. But it certainly wasn’t all bad.
They claim to have ‘re-invented the studio experience’. I admit it ran pretty smoothly overall. We took the photos, all digital, so we could immediately review them on the large flat-panel displays right there in the studio. The photographer did a pretty good job of getting everyone, including Mark, to look at the camera and smile — no small task. After we selected the poses and package we wanted, it was just 1/2 hour to pick up the finished prints.
So, it was fast and streamlined, but very impersonal. The studio was crowded and ‘hopping’, and it wasn’t even at a peak time — I can’t imagine doing it earlier in December with the Christmas card rush. We certainly didn’t have a chance to look at some of the initial pictures and make adjustments — we ended up not using the whole first set in our solid-colored shirts because the background didn’t work and poses were off. There was definitely pressure to keep things moving along. To be fair, we had our own pressure to finish before Mark gave out, and we didn’t quite make it.
We’d really like to do a more laid-back session with a photographer who was a bit more interested in us personally, ideally a friend or family member — when are you going to come to Fort Collins, Lindsay? Plus, we have a strong preference for outdoor settings.
But, we did it, and we’re have some decent photos to capture this moment in our family history.
